Forget Me Nots

For the past few weeks I have had a couple of odds and ends floating around in my head. Just little tidbits that I don't want to forget, but of course now that I am sitting here I can only remember one or two.

1) Nuala and Oscar have had (for quite some time now) been able to say the names of all their siblings. Granted for a while Oscar was dead set on calling Micah "Bah-pah", not quite sure what the deal was with that, and while he calls Ruari "Row-Row" Nuala much prefers to address her as "Ree-Ree". The best moments come when both babies stand at the bottom of the gated stairwell, looking up the empty hallway rather longingly and serenade the big kids in an attempt to lure them back down for another game or book or bubble blowing session. "Viiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnn" they yell over and over again until Finn appears at the top of the stairs. Oscar is partial to Sidhe and can say her name with impressive clarity. He likes to call for her no matter where we are and regardless if she is in actual attendance. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit of all is that the twins have decided to name one another the same exact thing. They both refer to the other as "Dee-Dee". I have no idea how this came to be or what it even means, if anything, but it makes my heart melt a little at any rate. Especially since they know their actual names and can utter something to that effect. Nuala can say "Oz" and Oscar can say "Noodle" but still they prefer to use "Dee-Dee" for all intensive purposes and even if I never know why (which let's face it, I probably won't) I can't help but feel it is something special between them and deserves to be remembered. 

2) Geez, did I say I could remember two tidbits? Guess it was only one after all. Let's see here (wracking memory), ok, this whole Swine Flu, ahem N1H1 hysteria is starting to get under my skin a little bit. As of this morning our public schools here have shut down 16 schools in our city, one of which just so happens to be Finn's. Now any other week this wouldn't really bother me, but it just so happens that we have been planning, preparing and fundraising nearly all year long for a school trip to Boston which was supposed to take flight this morning. Unfortunately since his school is closed for this "medical emergency", Finn and the rest of his classmates are all grounded at home and the trip has been "indefinitely postponed". We'll have to wait (and by this I mean cross our fingers) to see how it all pans out, as everything has been paid for already. In the mean time I need some ideas for keeping a 13 year old and two toddlers occupied and entertained for the rest of the week. Sounds a lot easier than it really is.....

3) I love the way Nuala expresses herself with movement, with body language. She uses it all, her shoulders, her eyebrows, her eyeballs, her hips, her fingers and her toes. She is a little dancer, a ham and a clown. She makes jokes constantly and requests music all the time by doing a goofy little clenched fist arm pump, sort of like how you would motion for a truck driver to blow their horn when you were little. Did anyone else do that? She is a sneaky thing too, and is always running off with Oscar's sippy cup or favorite toy of the moment, laughing the entire time. We play chasing games around one of the living room couches and when she sees me coming she will change direction to escape me. She is really quite skilled at this game, and very fast as well, which usually results in her being able to keep a couch length, or more, between us. I used to worry about her a lot, and just how serious she seemed to be. I am not worried anymore, her laughter is free flowing and she is very generous with it.

4) Poor little Oscar has been sick for the past week now. Over the weekend we even had to bring out the nebulizer and give him a few breathing treatments. These went about as well as you might expect. He was not thrilled in the slightest to have some weird growling plastic mask over his face and made sure we knew exactly how he felt about the entire affair. He hasn't needed to have a treatment since he was very little, think 8 weeks old little, and let me just tell you he is A LOT stronger now and can put up a quite a fight. He screamed throughout the entire second treatment, which is actually good because it allowed his lungs to get the medicine, and then he proceeded to throw up a bit afterwards, which is also good since it cleared some of the gunk out of his little belly. At least this is what my mother told me, so I'm taking her word for it. Brendan has struggled with respiratory issues his entire life, and I was soooo hoping the babies would take after me in this regard, but so far the signs say otherwise. 

5) ****HORRAY!!!!**** I just got a call from the lady who is organizing the Boston trip and they were able to re-schedule the entire thing! And get this, they were able to do it at NO ADDITIONAL COST. Whoopie. Well, I am going to end on this wonderful note, not much can trump this one.